RanBeard
by TetsuoTsubushi
Summary: [AU] A fusion of Ranma and Akahige. One-shot. Just made for the hell of it.


I ain't the one who owns Ranma 1/2, and I certainly don't own Red Beard(Akahige). This is just based on those two great stories.

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It was a nice day, but the sky was blotted with clouds that occasionally blocked the sun. They were dark clouds too; the kind that forewarn people of rainfall. Edo was not a nice place in this part where the poor settled, and many often became sickly. There was a place they could all go though which was the Koishikawa Public Clinic run by Kyojio Niide, or as he is often referred to as, Akahige.

Of all the sick who were there one stood out among the rest. Saotome Ranma was a beloved character around here. He had spent all of the life the others know helping them here in this town. He would do just about everything for anyone. He had become ill recently however and was forced to stay at the clinic. Although stricken with disease Ranma still managed to work hard for the others while some disapproved saying he should rest, and the other ill patients thanked the gods for such a helpful man.

However, on one day Ranma no longer could help. He was far too sick to live any longer and despite how much the others urged him to live he would not make it. That day there was many standing despite how sick they were outside his door.

"Please get better Saotome." They urged.

"Pheh. You only want him to get better so as to help you. Then you can laze about for all the time you want as he works alone." The nurse replied.

"Not at all. Saotome is like a saint. He works so hard and we appreciate such a man." They responded.

The young doctor arrived and urged that they leave as he entered the room and sat beside Ranma. "You don't wear your uniform like the others." Ranma weakly noted as he eyed the young doctor beside his bed. "You should because it lets us know" Ranma commented slowly and without life. "That you work at the clinic. We are poor people and have not the money for private doctors, so the uniform of a clinic doctor makes us feel safe."

"You should rest."

"Listen," Ranma began taking in a weak breath. "If this is to be the last of my breaths I have one favor of you."

"Ranma?"

"I wish to return to my home. That is where I want to die."

"I'll see what I can do."

A procession followed as four men lifted Ranma back to his small home in town. Even after he was back home many stood around despite being urged to return. One of the men in town came in a drunken stupor to see Ranma.

"You know not what you say. You are drunk Mousse." One of the other men noted.

"I never remember what goes when I am sober. I can only talk ever when I am this way. I know more than you figure." Mousse replied as he wobbled about his knees near Ranma. "You need to get better Saotome."

"You should all leave. Ranma needs his rest." Akahige orders as the others depart slowly.

"Please get better Saotome. We need you." They said in hopes Ranma's health will return as they left.

"Good. He's asleep now." Akahige noted eyeing Ranma's sleeping form. "It's so sad. Two good men are dead now. Rokusuke this afternoon had passed."

"You mean, Ranma will die?" The young doctor questioned.

"Mmm. I'm afraid so." 

The night was loud as the downpour took the town. Still many wished Ranma good health and the young doctor continued to watch the sleeping form of the well-respected man. Without warning a landslide occurs shifting the entire Saotome home startling the young doctor. He stood as many others went to search the incident as the doctor watched from the open window.

"Oi! A skeleton?" One man remarked looking to the ground.

"That" The young doctor closes the window and looks to Ranma. "That is my wife's body. I had buried it." Ranma said. "She has come for me at last. Please, call everyone here."

A young Ranma walks quickly down a street as snow falls down upon him. A young woman runs up to him with an umbrella in hand.

"Please take this." She offered.

"But I am already wet." Ranma replied.

"Please."

Ranma takes the umbrella. "Thank you."

"My wife Akane." Ranma weakly said as many were now around his lying form. "Once I had returned her umbrella I found I could not forget her. We met many times at the fields of Iriya following."

The young Ranma stand with Akane on a hilltop overlooking the fields below. "I, am happy." Akane said quietly.

Ranma eagerly went to her side. "Will you marry me then?"

She looks at him sadly. "I'm sorry. I can't. I am not free to do so. I have seven brothers and sisters and my father is ill. I must stay with provide for them."

"I can provide for them. If we were to marry your parents would be just as much mine as yours." He replies.

"Still, I'm sorry I cannot."

"Is it, another man?" Ranma asks distraught.

"You think me to be that kind of woman?" She roared as he backed away.

"No, I just could not think of another reason."

"I'm sorry Ranma. We just can't be happy."

"I wanted her so badly. After some time he finally was able to get her to consent. I never met her family. She refused my even being introduced to them. I never got her to, but regardless we were wed anyway." Ranma said with a wheezing voice. "It was like a happy dream, but those always end. That was when the great earthquake came."

A young Ranma scurries through ruins of what was once the neighborhood near his and Akane's home. He came to his house to find it flattened and the clay roof was everywhere. He quickly went to searching the rubble for his wife, but he never found her. He never found her body among the ruins. He thought she may return there, but never did she come and she merely disappeared.

Ranma went to her family, and was told she had died long ago. Come autumn he left and moved to his current home in Edo as he thought Akane to be dead. For two peaceful years he had continued to live as he had. That never lasts though.

Ranma walked street as many were celebrating in Asakusa, but he saw something he had not expected to see. He saw Akane, but not just Akane in her kimono, but with a babe on her back. A young baby no more than a year old. She has been missing from him for nearly two.

That night the two walked silently down the street. She was jumping slightly gently rocking the baby on her back as she walked with Ranma. He had no clue what to say. He was so sad by the events that were before him. She was no longer the same Akane he had.

She stops as the baby begins to cry loudly and she brings them to her front as she goes to nurture the babe.

"Are you happy?" Ranma asks only to get silence in response. "Is this the last time we will meet then?" 

She lowers her head slightly. She continues to keep silent as Ranma understands and begins to walk away slightly as does she. He looks back and begins to go for her, but stops himself and returns to leaving, but he is brought back again, but again he stops and turns away. He begins to go away as she turns to look back at him. They look to one another, and that was it. She looked back at him and bowed to him and was off to her life that he was not a part of. Her image in his head caused him to be so sad he had nearly any strength to breath.

Ranma lied on his bedding at night, as he could not sleep. The shogi slid open causing a slight sound as Akane moved into the room and sat beside him, and she could not find it in herself to get to him.

"Who told you I live here?"

"Your employer, and he told me other things too. You were sick long ago." She said sadly. "I'm sorry! Will you ever forgive me?" A silence took the room as Ranma continued to look away from her. "You aren't going to forgive me?"

"I'm not sure I can." He said grimly. "I don't know if I'm glad, or sad that you are still among the living."

She looks down in a near cry as he sits up and continues to look in the opposite direction of her. "Will you let me explain?" She pleaded.

"If it wouldn't trouble you." He replied as he went to light his lamp.

"Don't light it." She said looking away. He withdrew his hand from near the lamp. A silence takes over the room for a short moment. "I was promised to a man already. He lived on the same street as my family and ever since he was young he had said he would become one of my family so he could support us. Then one day when he had become twenty he asked my hand in marriage and my parents allowed it. It didn't matter that I neither liked or disliked him, and I only thought of what he had done for my family." She sadly explained taking in a breath. "Then I met you and I became confused as to what to do." She moved to his hind side. "I felt sorry for him, but I could not leave you. Then I decided finally. I owed a debt of kindness, but I thought it could be returned. I became frighteningly strong, and my parents punished me. Pleaded with me, but I did not give in to that. I had not wanted him."

"Then why did you" Ranma muttered not finishing his full sentence.

"We were too happy together. I was afraid, and I felt that I did not deserve it. I felt if I had continued I would be punished." She explained as she drew in a breath. "Then the earthquake came. That was my punishment, and that's when I learned I had spent all of the happiness my life granted me. That earthquake was a portent telling me to stop my happiness. I knew you would think me to be dead and I would not have to worry about that. The time to end had come. I walked thinking about it all and found myself at his door."

"I understand." Ranma said with a wavering voice. He moved away as they both were on opposite sides of the room. "I understand. I know how you must have felt."

"I felt so lost after that, and I was his. When I met you in Asakusa I felt like I had been found." She said looking away. "Then I found myself back at my home again. He, my child and I seem like different who are far away." She moves to the area just behind him quickly. "I am here now, and this is who I really am." Her hand picks up small knife that lies to the side without much notice. "Hold me." She pleaded. He moves quickly to turn around and stares her in the eyes. "Please hold me closer." She said in a quiet shout as he took her in his arms. She let out a gasp and Ranma became worried and looked to find the knife in her stomach now. He drew it from her throwing it aside in a panic. "Don't let go of me. Please, hold me." She said as she went limp.

"She told me to not let her go, and I had not the reason to." Ranma said in his sickly voice as he drew in air. The rest watched him continue his confession. "I buried her on the cliff just behind my home. I built a small workshop over it. I was always with Akane." The others slightly whimpered from his sad story. He smiled slightly in response. "Do you understand now? All I did for my neighbors was in Akane's memory. I know not of her husband and child, and yet I made them sad as well. I could only atone for what happened by becoming useful to others." He drew in as deep a breath as he could muster. "At last it has come to an end. Akane has come to me many times since the day previous." He took in another dying breath. "We can finally be together again." He swallowed and looked upwards. "Akane you're so beautiful." He said in joy. "You're so beautiful!" He announced as he raised his hands into the air. "Come to me!" Ranma said with a final breath as his arms fell back to the floor.

Everyone moved to him in a cry as he went on into death. A man they thought a saint had such a history. A good man he was though and that was all they needed to have. The young doctor who is sans a clinic uniform moves down the street that night after all of the events and the rain had subsided. He looked back to the home that Saotome had lived in. The next day he would wear his uniform. 


End file.
